Hi Barbara, Jews have indeed a very developped sense of humour, and they know how have a good laugh about themselve too. It was part of a 2000+ years survival kit, which, unfortunately is actual today too, when nice leaders like the iranian President is as keen as Hitler to annihilate us. So humor is prevalent in Jewish culture, and the more the better.
On a diffeent level , I do think that we ( jews) are quite self assured about our religion/culture/tradition , and jokes , caricatures, insults , benign or vicious, about Jews or Judaism are not perceived as endangering our faith, and it won't bring us out in the streets to violent demonstrations, or killing /injuring/bombing/threatening the offenders or anyone who does not like us. We have better things to do. Maybe because Judaim is a very old religion, we don't feel that the approval or dissaproval of certain persons/people/nations of our beliefs and traditions are a real threat to Judaism itself- as opposed to real PHYSICAL threats that we, Israelis and jews , try to deal with- and not always in a peaceful manner. So the more jokes ( nice ones) are welcome ( I can supply you with a lot of them).
Returning to Gefilte fish, - it's not at all a religious thing. It's origins are in Poland and Russia, where more food had to be done from less ( you take one carp, add matzo meal, eggs etc atc- so you "strech" the fish and the proteins - and feed more people). It's a poor man's dish, which somehow, sometimes in the Middle ages became a traditional Passover tradition - but only for the Jews of Cental and eastern Europe. The Sephardic Jews ( originary from Arab countries) can't stand this dish, they laugh at us, and they have their own version of a very spicy fish dish for Pesach, which I personally, greatly prefer to the traditional gefilte fish of my grandma ( God bless her soul).
The story you put on the forum illustrates how modern Jewish housewifes'don't really like to do this dish anymore ( lot of working with the fish) so they buy ready made ones. It reminds me the joke abou a young chuld living in the great city who was asked to draw a chicken : so he drew a chicken wrapped in plastic, as he has seen them in the super.
Now I have to go and cook for my clients for Seder ( no gefilte fish) .
Happy Passover ,

No more war, I don't like Manischewitz's gefilte fish, I prefer smoked salmon!!!

The gefilte fish project will be picked up next year! My mother ended up breaking her ankle (what else can go wrong with that woman's body?! Don't answer) and couldn't travel to my place for the holiday. When I learned she wouldn't be able to make it, I realized that she was my prime motivation for doing a seder this year. (I'm really busy at work right now and was worried about how I'd find the time to cook and entertain anyway.)

So, *blush* I didn't have a seder at all and went away for the weekend with my boyfriend instead. My friends and son were disappointed, but they'll be that much happier next year when I produce my matzoh balls and maybe even my own gefilte fish.

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes , Suzy. So let it be " next year.... seder at my home" ( "next year in Jerusalem" is the most common wish/PRAYER of the Jewish people since they were scattered in the Diaspora 2000 years ago).
Rachel24, you have missed some good stuff!! Jsut go to a good delicattesen shop, and have one. But of course, I'm subjective, it might be an aquired taste!

No more war, more gefilte fish !( I believe I repeat myself with this one, but gefilte fish does deserve another mention)

I never even heard of the gefilte fish. So the overall consensus is that it is a great dish ehh?

I think it is rather like spam only made of fish. Or hot dogs, only made of fish.

I don't get the appeal at all. As mentioned above, it's a sort of leftovers of fish glommed into a cake - that's why it's better purchased, because unless you are a fishmonger, you don't have the leftovers, so you have to make them from scratch.

there are much better foods to focus on making from scratch, imho, than gefilte fish!

Well Ripley, I'm not going to get patriotic over gefilte fish, but no, they are not done from leftovers. Check your gefilte fish recipe sources. Anyhow, nobody has to love it, as I said, it is an aquired taste! Bon Appetit!

Well Ripley, I'm not going to get patriotic over gefilte fish, but no, they are not done from leftovers. Check your gefilte fish recipe sources. Anyhow, nobody has to love it, as I said, it is an aquired taste! Bon Appetit!

No more war :evil: , and gefilte fish is not a fish hot dog! 8)

I bow to your authority on this one :wink:

but a bit of meat stretched with scraps and starch sounds like hot dogs to me!

I'm with you on preferring the sephardic style fish. I'm a fan of the sephardic dishes generally. I cooked a turkish eggplant tomato stew for seder.

Add the egg, salt, pepper and matzo meal and process until smooth. Set fish mixture aside while preparing the broth. Place all broth ingredients into a deep pot or Dutch oven. Bring to boil over a high heat; then lower heat and simmer until bouillon cubes dissolve.

With wet hands, shape fish mixture into 1 1/2 inch diameter balls. Gently drop the balls into the simmering broth. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour, occasionally turning balls with a spoon.

Remove the pot from the heat and let the balls cool in the broth. Use a slotted spoon to remove the balls. Strain broth through cheesecloth and pour over fish.
Makes about 12 balls.

I went to a Seder at the Unitarian church where they served gefilte fish from a Maneschevitz (sp?) jar. I am not a huge fan of canned food even from bottles so I didn't eat it. Another goy made roast turkey with matzo stuffing-- pretty good given that she is vegetarian and only cooks meat for Passover-- especially since she is not Jewish and it is not a traditional dish in her house. I did a riff on tzimmes, hoping that I did not offend anyone's sensibilities by changing the traditional recipe and making it less bland. I am wondering if Joan Nathan's Quiches Kugels and Couscous has good Seder recipes including some sort of gefilte fish. I heard her interviewed on the radio, and the books sound really interesting and in a compatible theme with this blog-- French Jewish cooking. Amazon's preview of the book has tons of recipes for several holidays, but I think you would have to actually buy it to get a good idea of what is in it. I know it is long past Passover, but since we are talking about next year anyway........